Budget: Environmental reviews to be limited, simplified

By Jason Fekete, Postmedia NewsMarch 29, 2012

OTTAWA — The federal government is overhauling its environmental review process for natural resource projects, announcing in Thursday's budget it will implement defined timelines, hand over some reviews to the provinces and dedicate fewer resources to examining small projects.

In a move sure to rankle some environmental groups, the Harper government said it will soon introduce legislation aimed at having "one project, one review" in a defined time period.

"There will be timelines and the environmental process will go ahead. But we won't have these, well, quite frankly, ridiculous situations where we have assessments going on for years over projects that are sometimes abandoned because the process itself takes so long and at such great expense," Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told reporters Thursday.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver have recently criticized "foreign money" and "radical" environmental groups, which they claim are attempting to hijack regulatory hearings and ultimately derail major resource projects, such as the Northern Gateway pipeline project currently under review. The pipeline would ship oilsands crude from northern Alberta to the port of Kitimat, B.C., for shipment by tankers to Asia.

The government is looking to eliminate duplication on environmental reviews, provide more certainty to companies investing billions of dollars in major petroleum and mining projects across the country and help expand Canada's energy export markets beyond the United States.

The Harper government will limit joint panel environmental reviews to 24 months (such as the Northern Gateway project), National Energy Board hearings to 18 months and standard environmental assessments to one year.

The federal government will now also recognize some provincial environmental assessments for resource projects as equivalent to federal assessments, and will also transfer some decision-making for permits from Ottawa to other jurisdictions.

Flaherty said the one project, one review "applies to all major projects, including the Northern Gateway."

Green party leader Elizabeth May noted the government has already weakened the environmental review process in recent years and is now planning to cut the budget of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency by more than 40 per cent in the new budget year.

Streamlining the regulatory process for major resource projects "is the last few nails in the coffin of environmental review," May said.

"It's all about railroading projects through as fast as possible without having them adequately reviewed for environmental impacts," she said.

The changes are sparking concerns over whether the government's plans for "one project, one review" — including leaving some reviews with the provinces — will provide sufficient environmental oversight.

The federal government, for example, rejected in 2010 a proposal to turn a picturesque British Columbia fishing lake into a tailings dumping ground for a new mine after the project was approved by the B.C. government.

The budget dedicates nearly $14 million over two years to integrate consultations with aboriginal peoples into project reviews.

Furthermore, $13.5 million will be spent over two years (with the cash to be cost-recovered from industry) to increase the number of oil and gas pipeline inspections to 150 per year from 100 and double from three to six the number of major annual audits to flag issues before incidents occur.

New cash will also be invested for more tanker inspections, as well as to continue funding the Major Projects Management Office that helps shorten review times. The government is also promising to amend the Coasting Trade Act to advance exploration for new offshore oil and gas developments and improve access to seismic data.

"Those who wish to invest in our resources have been facing an increasingly complicated web of rules and bureaucratic reviews that have grown over time, adding costs and delays that can deter investors and undermine the economic viability of major projects," says the budget document.

Ottawa says more than 500 major economic projects — representing $500 billion in new investments — are planned across Canada over the next decade, but regulatory burdens threaten the viability of them.

The government noted that several major projects have been delayed in recent years by a heavy regulatory burden, including a pipeline project between Alberta and Manitoba, a uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan and the Joslyn North oilsands mine in northern Alberta. The oilsands mine alone needed about five years to complete the regulatory and environmental review process.

John Manley, president of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, said reducing the regulatory burden by having one review per project is a positive step because it provides more certainty to businesses making potentially multibillion-dollar investment decisions.

"There's a lot that needs to be done in Canada by way of project development, infrastructure and energy development that needs to be done with a view to public health and safety, but it can be done more efficiently than in the past," Manley said.

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